Disclaimer:I don't own anyone or anything from the Artemis Fowl. It is rubbed in once again.
To salvage what little pride I have, though, I do own Alina and Elsa Blau, and the whole Loss Factor idea thing. Hey, at least it's something! :P
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea:
But we loved with a love that was more than love -
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her high-born kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me -
Yes! that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud one night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we -
Of many far wiser than we -
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling -my darling -my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea -
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
Annabel Lee
~By Edgar Allen Poe
"True...they are nice to have as backup occasionally, though. But again, where's the 'fun' in that?" Crookedly grinning, Artemis took a deep breath, enjoying for once the clean, briny air coming from the sea only a few hundred feet below them.
"It's not supposed to be fun, per say, but better to have a light heart than to be depressed." she commented, cocking her head and shrugging slightly. "Anyway, to get horribly back on topic, can you explain more in depth the whole 'loss factor' theory to me? I'm not quite as intelligent as you are, so use understandable words. Better yet," she added as an afterthought. "Pronounceable words."
"Certainly," he assured her, then stayed silent a few moments, gathering his thoughts. "To put it very basically, the loss factor isn't a theory. Not exactly. It predicts correctly around 99.9 percent of the time, so it is a very accurate, precise, mathematical sort of prophecy, or rather, 'seeing the future'."
Raising her hand as if she were in school, Holly pointed out, "That still doesn't explain how it works. I know mathematical things are supposed to work perfectly and all that, but still, how? Does it involve something extraordinary? Why hasn't Foaly or some other genius, like Minerva – here she curled her lip – already figured the numbers out?"
"Mathematics do always work – it just depends on your numbers and such. If you don't work a problem or formula correctly, of course it won't come out right. Math keeps to strict lines; one plus one always equals two; it can't equal three. No matter how you add, it'll always be two. In the same way does the loss factor work; if you use the right numbers and such, you will get the right answer.
"The only extraordinary thing about the Loss Factor is the amount of time that it takes to derive. Once you have the formula, all you need to do is make slight modifications, depending on what you're wanting to figure out. Taking the current time, year, all that sort of thing, how far ahead you want to know, who specifically you want to know about, what you want to know, all that you have to take into consideration. That's mostly why it takes so long; you have to precisely have all these smaller factors.
"About your questions; I don't know why Foaly or Minerva hasn't derived the loss factors yet. They certainly have the ability, but it's possible that they have simply never thought about the possibility before. After all, not everyone wants to see the future, as I wanted to."
Holly pushed short bangs back into place, then stated, "Like me."
Nodding, Artemis dropped his hands from their steepled position. "Yes. Like you. Not exactly something common, but then again, you aren't a human. Most of us are very obsessive about what will happen, and they forget that..." he trailed off, realizing something.
"What?" Holly asked gently, turning her ear to him, as if to hear his words better.
After childishly blowing on the window, and scribbling with his finger on the cool glass, Artemis watched the moisture evaporate, then answered. "They forget that the future depends on what choices you make, and how the repercussions of those choices effect you. It depends on who you meet every day, and what people do or don't do to you."
"They forget that the future isn't set in stone..."
Alina said nothing; she had decided that all it could possibly do was get her even further into Opal's bad books. Even though that seemed impossible, she didn't want to risk angering once again her 'master'. The simple thought that she had to obey this puny, megalomaniac pixie sent her blood rushing fiercely through her body, especially her cheeks, giving her an incredibly flushed appearance. There was something...dependent in Opal, however; something that ripped Alina in two ways; wanting to comfort the wretched pixie, and wanting to murder her. Neither side was dominant yet, so she resorted to silence, while inside she had it out with herself.
"You are too silent, human. And what in Frond's despicable name is wrong with your complexion, girl? There is nothing to blush about here, girl, unless you are marveling at me. In that case, blush away." Opal sneered at the end of this, and Alina was reminded once again of the story in mythology of Narcissus. The man who was so obsessed with looking at his own beauty in bodies of water that he eventually died, and from the place of his death, flowers that bent over the water, as if looking at their reflections grew, forever a reminder of his self-fixation...
She jolted back to reality when a shudder ran through the shuttle, and looked out the window to see darkness all around them, a storm they had happened upon on the way to - where was it Opal had said, Germany? Alina remembered being somewhat excited; the fact that they were going to Germany, where her heritage was had thrilled her. Mother had told her time and time again about the numerous cousins she'd never met who lived there, and Alina had always wanted to meet them. That desire had dimmed slowly but surely since then, and now it was almost nonexistent.
A small whimper alerted her, and if she'd had cat or dog ears, they would have been pricked with the strain of her listening. The noise came again, and she turned slowly, swiveling in her chair to see Opal kneeling on the floor, one hand over an ear and one covering both eyes, as if she were trying to block off all of her senses that alerted her to the storm. Occasionally a choked sob or whimper would escape her, and that was what unnerved Alina so much. Miss Koboi hadn't struck her as the kind of person who would break down like this, especially not in the darkness of a storm. She swiftly unbuckled herself then crouched to the floor, carefully maneuvering her way over to the shuddering form, then asked, "Miss Koboi? Are you-"
With surprising strength, the pixie shoved Alina away, using her long fingernails as well as her palms to get the human away from herself. Surprised, Alina didn't move fast enough and sustained several scratches on her arms, and one long one on her face that trailed down her cheek just under her eye and under her chin, stopping finally halfway down her throat. It wasn't too deep, but it was long, and Alina could feel the blood slowly dribbling down her face. Strangely, the pain didn't seem to affect her at all, but she figured that this would cease soon, as her body was slightly in shock. She chose to ignore the long cut and focused on Opal, and odd concern filling her mind.
As she neared Miss Koboi once more, she was careful to approach from behind, so that the pixie wouldn't be able to lash out with arms this time. Surprisingly enough, she succeeded this time, and from behind, Opal was held in the firm embrace of a human. She seemed not to care, and her arms were kept wrapped around her head, and to her confusion, Alina felt tears spashing on her arms, and they warm. Just like mine and like any other person's tears...
Everyone fears something.
When Elsa awoke, she didn't open her eyes at first, assuming she was still lying on Aly's bed at home. This became obviously untrue as soon as she paid attention to what she was laying, the softness of the fabrics and the way she had sank into it. Also, the lack of a familiar hardness under her head, a book, was missing as well. She could go on and on about the list of clues; she couldn't smell the familiar, light scent of sweet pea lotion that Aly always used for the exema on the ring finger of her right hand. It usually lingered in the room, though Elsa didn't mind the faint, delicate fragrance.
She feared opening her eyes; she didn't want to see what new place she resided at, and knew that the fairies she had let into the house were the cause of this. They had seemed so kind at first; were they still good, or had her first impression been wrong? They hadn't hurt her at all; simply moved her...but something about all of it seemed more ominous than benign.
Finally deciding to risk it and peel her eyes back to see, Elsa opened her right eye first, then her left, seeing above only a blank metalic ceiling winking back at her. Sitting up, she moaned quietly, groggy after her somewhat untimely nap. It had been somewhere around 2PM when she'd zonked out, and she had no idea what time it was now. Shaking her curiosity, she looked around, and saw...nothing. Or rather, nothing of importance. Around her were walls of the same grey material, and a great, dark window in one wall. The cot she was now sitting on was set in the middle of the small room, and that was it. There was nothing on the floor, and no other furniture or decorations in the room; just stark metal.
Getting up, she began a slow circuit of the room, running her right hand along the walls, searching for any crack that would hint at a door. Finding nothing, she went to the glass, tapping on it. Ten minutes later and much tapping, knocking, screaming, and beating at the glass, nothing had changed except her. She was now breathing faster, and could feel her heart pounding in her chest, speaking of how frightened she truly was.
Finally giving up and knowing there was nothing she could do, Elsa shoved the cot into a corner of the room, pulled the blanket over her shoulders, then sat. She stayed that way a few scant seconds, then pulled her legs up onto the cot, wrapping her suddenly cold and goosebumped skin in the warm, soothing material. Resting her head on her knees, she felt like crying, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to any emotion other than fear.
Where is Mama? Where's home?
Where is Aly?
Chappy Eight; whoo! ^^
I can't believe it's 2009 already...it's almost my birthday, too. January 14th; this Wednesday. Technically, four more days until I turn 15. I can't believe I've come so far; I have so many awesome friends whom I love, all of them; I have a somewhat successful account; I have a couple longer fics and a couple drabble series going; I have a DevART account with something on it; I've finally done AgiVega's AF meme(it was really fun, though I sucked at drawing because I had to draw with GIMP). I feel like I've come so far, and I believe I've come a long way as well. I'm a bit wiser now; I'm somewhat more mellow, though all that it takes to change that is Rockstar energy drink(I love the mango orange one best. ^^ Red Bull is okay, but...yeah. Mango orange wins.) I think I've improved in writing and drawing since my last birthday. I hope it's okay to be proud of myself. :P
I really like the word benign. It makes me think of Bengal tigers...which right now makes me think of me(I have these awesome tiger-striped cat ears), which makes me think of Nekos, which makes me think of Tokyo Mew Mew, the manga I've just started today and love already. ^^ I'm not too far into it yet, but it's really fun...and cute; I love the art style. :)
Anyhoo...comments and constructive crit are always totally welcome; I hugely appreciate everyone who has reviewed. ^^ *glomps all around* I don't live for reviews, but they are nice occasionally. As several readers asked, I went more into detail about the whole Loss Factor thing; I hope I did okay; I love writing about Math stuff, even if I don't like doing Math itself, but...it really can get hard.
Hope everyone enjoys reading this; I certainly enjoyed writing it, and have an awesome January weekend! ^^